Who are some of the key figures in the history of abstract art? Can video games be good for children? What are some ethical approaches to decision-making? You'll find the answers to these and other questions in Contemporary Topics 1, which features college lectures from several academic disciplines, including art history, media studies, and psychology. Contemporary Topics 1 prepares students for the challenge of college lectures with practice in a wide range of listening, speaking and note-taking skills and strategies. The lectures (available on CD and DVD) were filmed in realistic academic setting before live student audiences. DVD Features Realistic college lectures from a range of academic disciplines (also on audio CDs) Student discussions of the lectures (also on audio CDs) Instructors' Presentation Points Coaching Tips that guide students as they take notes Subtitles for lectures and student discussions Course Features Corpus-based vocabulary drawn from the Academic Word List Practical listening and note-taking strategies Note-review practice that allows students to analyze their note-taking skills and consolidate their understanding of the lecture Academic research and speaking tasks: presentation, discussions, and role plays A Teacher's Pack for busy instructors with: Suggested bonus activities Teaching notes Answer keys Audioscripts Simulated TOEFL (R) Listening Test for each unit See also: Contemporary Topics Introductory (High Beginner) Contemporary Topics 2 (High Intermediate) Contemporary Topics 3 (Advanced)

"NorthStar: Building Skills for the TOEFL(R)" "iBT: High Intermediate," by Helen Solorzano (Series Editors: Frances Boyd and Carol Numrich) is published in cooperation with ETS. Pearson Longman and ETS combine their expertise in language learning and test development to create an innovative approach to building the skills assessed in the new TOEFL(R) Internet-based test (iBT). Each text features

• Ten thematic units to develop academic skills in English while building test-taking confidence
• Integrated skill practice to develop critical thinking and communicative competence
• Authentic TOEFL(R) iBT practice sets created by ETS especially for this series
• Practical tips to sharpen test-taking strategies
• Teacher's Manuals with evaluation tools to track students' progress and actual student responses (speaking and writing) at all score levels

"Focus on Writing" is an academic writing program that provides students with essential tools to master not only the key steps in the writing process, but also the grammatical structures, lexical knowledge, and rhetorical modes essential for academic writing. This five-level series progresses with students as they grow in confidence and ability from sentence level (Book 1) through paragraphs (Books 1-3) and essays (Books 3-5). Each unit leads writers step-by-step through the process of prewriting, writing a first draft, revising, and editing before producing a final draft. Not only do students write an entire paragraph or essay in each unit, they are also given plenty of practice at the sentence and word levels. Features:

• Each unit teaches students how to use one or more common organizational structures: narrative, description, opinion, persuasion, compare-contrast, problem-solution, and cause-effect.
• High-interest readings and a choice of writing assignments provide a springboard for students' writing.
• Grammar presentation and practice correlated to Focus on Grammar make the connection between grammar and writing clear.
• Building Word Knowledge mini-lessons and exercises teach students' how to use word forms, collocations, idioms, compounds, descriptive details, phrasal verbs and other types of vocabulary in their writing.
• Revision and Editing checklists for each writing assignment help students rewrite and polish their first drafts.
• Online Teacher's Manuals contain model lesson plans, unit overviews, timed writing assignments, authentic student models, and answer keys.